When the waters of the Cáceres reservoir of valdecanas, some old neighbors Old Talavera They usually go to the cemetery, waterlogged by the swamp at the beginning of the years 60, to pray to their dead. As if wanting to pay homage to the submerged memory of that people from Extremadura, the door of the temple of the roman city of Augustóbriga lords it over the northern shores of the reservoir, on the road between Navalmoral de la Mata and Guadalupe.
Past and future are delivered here the witness. Those roman ruins are, for almost three years, the main entrance to geopark of Villuercas, which houses a set of perfectly aligned mountain ranges in a northwesterly direction with the same geological DNA as the Apalaches from North America. a simple coincidence? At all. This region keeps a memory of what the Earth was like 300 million years, when before the continents were formed a mountain range ran through it from present-day Canada to the Atlas.
The door of the temple of the Roman city of Augustóbriga is the main entrance to the Villuercas geopark
Now, This mountain range is divided among eleven countries that dream of signaling the Appalachian International Trail (BE). The United States was the first to get down to work and has already delimited the 3.500 kilometers of road that run through its territory. In Extremadura the first steps are still being taken to mark the route from Las Vegas del Guadiana to Monfragüe. Welcome to the Appalachians of Extremadura.
The cliffs of the Villuercas, also known as the Blue Mountains, they appear in the distance like a wave of stone breaking in the tranquility of the plateau just after leaving the swamp behind. These seraglios give name, since september 2011, to the Villuercas-Ibores-Jara geopark, a UNESCO recognition to the territories with a valuable geological heritage, in this case enriched even more if possible by lands full of history and good gastronomy.
The Blue Mountains loom in the distance like a wave of stone breaking on the tranquility of the plateau
Between a rockrose forest, heather and cork oak is reached Chestnut grove of Ibor, in the valley of the same name, where one of the most relevant karstic caves in Europe is located. visit them, for the time being, It is impossible and you have to content yourself with going through its interpretation center. They are closed to the public from 2008, when a tourist vomited inside causing fungi that still threaten the unstable balance of these underground calcareous temples. Now that its reopening seems close, hurry up: there is already 3.600 people on the waiting list, eager to admire their characteristic "aragonites", calcareous fan-shaped rosettes that are the emblem of the geopark.
Path of the monumental Guadalupe, The road enters the Appalachian landscape and offers the opportunity to approach an exceptional viewpoint of this unique seraglio that seems to be lined up in military formation. You have to leave the car at the kilometer 4 of the Ex-118, on the hill of the Mudejar hermitage of the Humilladero, where the pilgrims to the monastery of Guadalupe gave thanks to God already in sight of their objective. Some as illustrious as his own Cervantes, who came to offer to the Virgin the chains of his captivity in Algiers.
To the hermitage of Humilladero, already in sight of Guadalupe, Cervantes himself made a pilgrimage after his captivity in Algiers
To the right of the road there is a track that goes up to the top of the cliff, the 1.601 meters, an unbeatable vantage point to see the mountainous relief of the geopark and get an idea of ??the work that lies ahead to signpost the Appalachian trail through these lands. “Representatives from the North American SIA have come to visit the area and are delighted with the project, because here there is not as much forest as on the American route and history, also, it is an incentive to spread it”, says the geologist John Gil Montes, one of the main promoters of the Villuercas geopark.
If the Appalachian relief is the main natural attraction of the geopark, its historical heart is Guadalupe, so linked to her monastery that until just two centuries ago its prior was, at the same time, the mayor of the village. Here the popular "Morenita" has been venerated since the end of the 13th century., an image of the Virgin that the shepherd gil lamb found buried by the Guadalupe River.
Isabel la Católica had a predilection for Guadalupe, to which he used to refer to him as "my paradise"
favorite place of Isabella, who used to refer to it as "my paradise", Its streets have to be walked slowly, lingering in the rich history of the municipality. It is obligatory to sit on a terrace in the main square to admire the works of the monastery, in view of the stack (turned into a fountain) where a handful of Indians who Christopher Columbus brought with him from America received baptism. And, how not, climb to the viewpoint Constitution Park (on the slope that leads to the parador) to see sunset on its walls and roofs, with the Sierra de las Villuercas in the distance.
The visitor reception center is located a few kilometers further south, in the town of Cane worker, where you have to stop before taking the road to logrosan, in the southern limits of the Villuercas geopark. Here you can visit the Costanaza mine (only the first level of the thirteen existing in its day), until the middle of the last century the largest phosphate deposit in Europe. The short tour, and the voice of one of the last workers of the mine, the nonagenarian Manuel Martin, brings us closer to the harsh living conditions of the miners, whose life expectancy was around 40 years.
